The hidden threat to HVDC polymeric insulation at design field: Solitonic conduction

While HVDC assets are impetuously expanding worldwide, the design of HVDC polymeric insulation systems still contains unknowns. It has been ascertained that space charge plays a fundamental role in DC insulation reliability because of modifications it may induce in the (Poissonian) electric field distribution, especially when heterocharge is formed during voltage application. Heterocharge (charge close to an electrode of opposite polarity to that of the electrode) can increase the electric field at the interface between electrode and polymer, thereby enhancing injection from the electrode. This can cause so large a field concentration as to increase the conductivity abruptly and lead to insulation failure due to the electrical discharge process called, usually, thermal instability breakdown [1], [2].